Learning to Love You More

Image via Daydream Lily

I'm having a really reflective day.
Today I am thinking alot about what is mundane, and what is significant.

The reason I started thinking about this was largely based on what I felt when I read this post from Diana at our.city.lights. I really appreciated that post and the honesty and feeling behind it, as well as the truth of her words. And I started thinking about what is mundane and what is significant. What is the stuff in life that really doesn't matter, and what are the things we should be hanging onto with dear life?

Since starting blogging this week I have been reading different opinions from people about what makes a blog appealing, and also widening my own reading list to gain some perspective. Some people are saying clearly "No one Cares What You Had for Lunch", while other people are just as clearly saying "We WANT TO KNOW what YOU had for lunch!". Can there be beauty in the mundane? And is that beauty something that is only beautiful to me, or should it be shared?

I want my life to be a beautiful, significant life. I want to have moments that I want to capture and hold onto. I don't want to go through the motions, obsess about a particular colour of nail polish (which I have been) and never engage with life apart from being a consumer. At the same time, I also don't want to be so weighed down with philosophical thoughts that I spend my time being pretentious, introspective and "deep". I'm a girl. I like dressing up and talking about shoes.

So in the interest of trying to find that balance I have been reading about some of the assignments created for the interactive art project Learning To Love You More, created by artist Miranda July.

Although this project stopped receiving submissions ages ago, the assignments themselves still have the ability to produce value and meaning because of the way it forces people to engage with life in a different way.

I'm in the process of completing two of the assignments. I'm going to send a card to a stranger, and have also asked my family to write a desciption of what I do, so I can post them here.
Already these assignments, particularly the latter, have started to create change in the way I engage with life. Hell, talking existentialism and philosophy with my family has never happened before but it has now:

Brother: You want me to write about what you do?

Me: Yeah, you know, what I DO

Brother: So, what do you mean "what you do"

Me: Well, it can mean whatever you think it means, it's open to your interpretation

Brother: Ok, well send me a list of questions and I'll answer them

Me: That's not really idea though, it's meant to be interpreted in whatever way you think it should be


Brother: (awkward silence) Ok

Me: Ok